• Question: Is the 'god' particle only named that to be ironic?

    Asked by crouchingmurloc to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Benjamin Hall

      Benjamin Hall answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      No. The term ‘god particle’ actually came from the title of a book published in 1993 (several decades after Peter Higgs proposed the existence of the Higgs Boson).

      The media picked up on this and in popular culture the Higgs Boson became known as the ‘god particle’. The name is actually pretty unpopular in the scienctific community.

    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Nah. Ben’s answer is spot on.

      Physicists I know get really cross when you call it the God particle. 😀

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Can’t argue with Ben’s answer.

      It’s easy to see the irony in the name though. The nature of the Higgs does fit well with the belief that God created everything just as the Higgs makes up all matter. Although creationism (or any religious faith) isn’t a belief I share but I can appreciate the irony.

    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      I suppose there were a lot of important theories hanging on the Higgs boson, so I can see why someone would call it God’s particle in the sense that we’d need to rethink a lot of theories if there was a surprise waiting there… but scientists do not tend to like the name because the question was on scientific theories, not religious beliefs.

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